Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of Hezbollah, has used the British prime minister's recent visit to Beirut to issue his strongest criticism of the Lebanese government since the fighting ended between Hezbollah and Israel.

"Nasrallah criticised Fuad Siniora, the Lebanonese prime minister, for giving Tony Blair a warm welcome in the country on Monday, in remarks aired by Aljazeera on Tuesday. "You bring him home to me and to my family and you give a great reception?" Nasrallah said. "If there was an invitation made for Tony Bair to visit, then this is a national disaster."

The Shia leader said that Blair participated in the killing of Lebanese by not doing enough to stop Israel's war with Hezbollah. "This Tony Blair is an associate in the murdering," he said.

Nasrallah also said his group has been practicing self-restraint against what he described as back-stabbing and provocation by some politicians. "Do not these [Lebanese officials] have feelings, calculations, brain or heart?" Nasrallah asked, apparently also criticising the Lebanese government's attempts to secure foreign aid to restore Lebanese infrastructure that was damaged during the war. "Are people made of stone in Lebanon? Is this country vacant of people? Are we only hotels, concrete, roads and bridges?" he said."

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Sayyed Nasrallah's description of Siniora's reception of the war criminal Blair as immoral and his reminder that "This Tony Blair is an associate in the murdering," applies equally to the puppet Abbas. Abbas gave Blair a red-carpet reception in Ramallah, which was a stab in the back for all Lebanese. Most Palestinians would agree with Nasrallah and would also describe Abbas' reception of Blair as immoral and cowardly. However, we (Lebanese and Palestinians) should remember that Siniora and Abbas do not make decisions, they follow orders.